British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was briefly left lost for words on Monday when he appeared to lose his place in notes during a speech to business leaders before relating an anecdote about his visit to a Peppa Pig theme park. Searching through his notes, Johnson sighed and repeatedly said “forgive me” as he briefly interrupted his speech to the Confederation of British Industry.
He recovered, though, swiftly, talking about technology unicorns and then a visit to Peppa Pig World, a park based on the children’s TV show.
“Yesterday I went, as we all must, to Peppa Pig World,” Johnson told the business executives. “I love it. Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place: it has very safe streets, discipline in schools.”
Johnson said Peppa Pig was a symbol of the power of U.K. creativity.
“Who would have believed that a pig that looks like a sort of Picasso-like hairdryer, a pig that was rejected by the BBC, would now be exported to 180 countries, with theme parks both in America and in China as well as in the New Forest,” he said.
“I think that is pure genius.”
Johnson promised to champion a green industrial revolution for Britain and hailed preschool favorite Peppa Pig as an inspiring model for the U.K. economy.
Johnson told a conference of business group the Confederation of British Industry that investing in new green technologies and redistributing wealth and industry away from the wealthy southeast of England could make Britains economy the biggest and most successful in Europe.
The government faces wide skepticism from a business sector that largely opposed Brexit, a cause Johnson championed. Many U.K. businesses argued that leaving the European Union would make it harder to do business with the 27-nation bloc, Britains biggest trading partner.
That has turned out to be true: U.K.-EU trade in both goods and services has fallen since the final split at the end of 2020, though some of the disruption may be due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Johnsons relationship with the business community has been tense ever since he is widely reported to have used a strong, dismissive expletive against businesses during Britains exit negotiations from the EU.
He insisted Monday that Ive never been anything other than businesss No. 1 fan.
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